Gods and Monsters

The planets were not so much aligned as divided Chukka Umunna style as the latest Tuesday-becomes-Thursday lost players at a rate of knots: no Katy or Joe, and Andrew and Adam T lost late in the day to fatigue and - a first for GNN - annual haircut.

So when 7.30 rolled around it was Martin, Ian, Stanley and myself sat at the table. First out of the blocks was LAMA: familiar to all but Stan. The newbie started badly when he lost the opening round, but with Martin and I also taking heavy losses, Stan recovered ground and went out in round four to return a chip and claim a narrow win:

Stan 12

Ian 14

Sam 30

Martin 41

We then took on the collaborative effort of foiling Belratti (Andrew explained the game here ) but, perhaps suffering from that lack of alignment, found ourselves repeatedly letting the forger through the door and it didn't take long for him to win:

Belratti : 6

Us: 9 (needed 15 to win)

With the lighter fare out of the way Stan went upstairs to read as Martin talked us through the rules of Gheos, the game that Andrew hated. Ian didn't hate it, but had said he'd play it again. So now he could! It was entirely new to me, and it's one of those rules-light decisions-heavy bamboozlers where almost everything you do has the potential to screw someone over, but doing so makes it more likely that they'll behave in kind. Players are Gods, placing tiles on an ever-growing landscape of islands and continents, and 'investing' in the tribes of these lands as they expand, encounter each other, and fail to get on. Everyone has three opportunities to score and Ian took his early, as the yellow tribe offered decent returns with a large continent that Martin and I were blocked out of.

After that, though, he fretted that he'd peaked too early. I fretted that I wouldn't peak at all, as Ian was now on 20-plus points, Martin 7 and I was stuck on zero. It's a hard game to get your head around the multitude of opportunities and each one's knock-on effects, and my habit to play conservatively in luck-pushing games (see: Incan Gold) meant I ended up with an almost identical set of followers to Martin, unable to catch him as a result because if either of us scored, we both scored the same amount. I needed to sabotage him somehow but I couldn't work out how.

Martin meanwhile, was busy sabotaging Ian, and Ian sabotaged right back as the largest continent kept rupturing and repairing itself. As it turned out, Ian had peaked too early, and I'd peaked too late:

Martin 91

Sam 77

Ian 66

"I'd play it again" said Ian, in the manner of someone imagining themselves imprisoned and not allowed in the exercise yard.

Next was Eggs of Ostrich. I confess I don't remember a huge amount about it because at this point - I blame Gheos - I was a bit drunk. I know none of my bags went bust, but none of them got filled either.

Martin 9 

Ian 7 

Sam 5

Ian went home at this point and Martin and I went to choose a game. To my surprise Martin suggested Brave Little Belgium, which I've played a lot recently solo: a 1-2 player endeavour of WWI where the Germans try to cross Belgium to reach France, and the Allies (the Entente) must stop them. We looked at the time, considered my familiarity with it, and dove in. However as we set up I realised how drunk I was as I started trying to explain the rules and couldn't remember any of them.

Luckily Martin's capacity to listen, read, and play all at the same time clarified things as I forgot to mention a couple of crucial points. Mostly though it is rather simple: chits are pulled from a bowl to see which army activates; choosing to sit pat or move. If it encounters an enemy, combat is automatically initiated, and either side can use previously-pulled Event chits that empower or hamper as appropriate: the Germans (me) can use Big Bertha to damage Belgian forts, and Zeppelins to aid in combat. The Entente can sabotage German movement. Either side can Force March troops to get them further down a particular path.

It's unsurprisingly combative from the get-go, with different armies having different strengths, and for the Entente very attritional: the Germans begin strongly and before the first round was over, the fort at Liege (one of three German objectives) was wiped out. The other German objectives are the turn the fort at Namur to dust, and get an infantry unit over the victory line and into France.

At one stage it looked like I might achieve neither, as Martin force-marched the French army of De Cary north to defend Namur, and managed to get in my way enough to prevent me reaching the victory line. I sent wave after wave of men to Namur and eventually beseiged it and overthrew the defenders in a bloody battle. But I still needed to reach the victory line and at this point the British had arrived and were getting in my shit. I headed north to avoid them and looked to be on the verge of victory with an assault on Ghent - only for the Entente to hold out against the odds. They did finally fall - but by this time it was the final round, by which time reaching my three objectives only represents a draw - just like real war, there's no winners.

Fun to revisit, if only to have the unfamiliar sensation of having Martin ask me advice. Feeling unqualified to give it was pretty familiar though. And that rounded off an unusually scarce, but enjoyable GNN night for another week.

And so it gheos

This week's games event was at Sam's place, and it began with six avid gamers huddled around the kitchen table. Sam was joined by Stanley, Joe (the grown up version, not Stanley's brother), Ian, Martin and me.

On one half of the table sat Sam, Stanley and Joe, getting ready for a game of Root, the new craze that swept the world of Sam and Stanley. At this end of the table, Martin had a new game to try, Gheos.

It had an interesting way of choosing the starting player; the one who can refrain from laughing the longest.

This game involves building a the playing area using triangular pieces with water and land, to create continents to put civilisations on. We don't control these civilisations in any way but, as gods, we can share in their success by picking up cubes of the same colour. We can also force the them to fight or migrate, by replacing parts of the world with new land masses, thus connecting or separating previously established continents.

This aspect of joining civilisations to make them fight reminded me of Tigris and Euphrates, and the game got a similarly cold reception from me. Ian said he enjoyed it and that he was expecting it to be more combative. I had to remind him that both he and Martin had killed off civilisations that I had a large stake in, in consecutive moves. Martin liked it, despite having to pay a cube if you want to be a dick to someone and change their continent.

Ian 70
Martin 69
Andrew 53

Meanwhile, in Root, after some debate whether Joe should choose an easier faction to play, the game was well under way. Stanley caused early upheaval by being hostile towards his dad, and wanting to hit Joe with a hammer. Added to this were strange discussions about battles in rabbit land or something. It looked nice but was all very opaque to an uniformed spectator.
Stanley won with what was, apparently, his favourite faction, while Joe managed to get into second and afterwards had nothing but praise for it.

Stanley 31
Joe 19
Sam 15

While we waiting for them to finish, we whipped off a quick round of Divinare. This game of psychic divination is rarely seen (because I never bring it) but is usually well received when it is.

We began with Martin saying he could hardly remember how to play. Suffice to say, it all came back to him.

Martin 10
Andrew - 1
Ian - 2

Afterwards, Martin explained his winning strategy, which is to remember what cards you hand your neighbour, because you'll see everything else. Not psychic powers, then. How disappointing.

Now, after so much ponderous gaming, we were in the mood for something riotous. We chose Decrypto, with our teams being Knackers All (Martin and Joe) against The Angry Stoics (Ian, Sam and I).

By round four, we had one error each, but then Knackers All got an interception. As we entered round five, I was in a fix, since we were sure that they had worked out three of our secret code words. Luckily, the combination I had to communicate to my fellow spies had the one word they knew least about. I entered a significant reverie that was long enough to be called a Joe Turn, and for reference to be made to Paul's epic contemplation on round nine of Lords Of Waterdeep.

In the end, it was all for nought, as they guessed it anyway. However, they failed to communicate their final clue, giving us hope that we might win on fewest mistakes. We didn't. Ian showed some talent by working out two of Joe and Martin's words, but those were just consolation goals in the football game of espionage.

Knackers All, loud and clear
The Angry Stoics, too much noise on the line.

Next was every quantity surveyor's favourite party game, Illusion. Last time we played, we were amazing in our accuracy. Today, not so much. Martin was distracted by a video of Huddersfield's wonder goal from the half-way line (into their own net, unfortunately) while I had a game where I neither challenged nor was challenged. Eagle eyed Ian took first place.

Ian 3
Martin 2
Joe 1
Sam 1
Andrew 0

Next was Face Cards, another new favourite. Just like Gheos, this game also had an ingenious way of choosing starting player: draw a card and the person who most resembles it begins. Apparently, I most resemble the Mona Lisa.

This game saw an audacious strategy by Joe. In his first round, he attempted to get us to match Mozart with Bach and he was amazed when no one chose it.

Then, in the next round he hoped that by playing Beethoven into the middle, that we would remember his fondness for dead composers and assume that was his card, despite the completely dissimilar card (a sheik) he had in front of him.

This plan was foiled when he accidentally put the Sheik in the middle and kept Beethoven in front of him. There was no way any of us could put those two together in those circumstances, especially since the author Goethe was among the six choices (which was my guess). But, to be honest, even if he'd got it right, I still don't think that it would have worked. Still, as I said, an audacious idea.

Joe also wondered if the game might be improved by betting real money on whether or not your pair is guessed. Maybe there's a variant on the Geek.

Martin 11
Ian 10
Joe 10
Sam 10
Andrew 9

Then we played a new very simple roll 'n' write, Kriss Kross. Roll two dice and write them (next to each other) in a five by five grid. Points are given for two, three, four or five in a row horizontally and vertically.

I omitted to pay much attention to the verticals, but luckily my horizontals scored so high, they didn't matter.

Andrew 29
Martin 28
Ian 26
Joe 25
Sam 25

Finally, with a win under my belt, I set off for home. Ian, despite flagging, was tempted to stay for a game of continuous Pairs. Joe lost the first game (since there are only losers in this variant, no winners) and Sam lost the second game on the last card in the deck.

Nice to be back at Sam's, and thanks to all for another fun time.